Saturday, April 2, 2011

CUSTOMS AND TRADITION (CONTINUED)

I now continue from my other blog which got interrupted coz of some technical hiccups and i was forced to publish before completion.We were somehow well received though i could see the faces that they thought we had gone for tit for tat or with an axe to grind.The best they could was to avoid us in a diplomatic way not directly."Akulu-akulu oti mukambe nao achoka anapita ku Ntcheu,ndiye mungodikila achemwali ake,aah koma mungopita kumudzi mwina mungakapeze anthu........."all sorts of stories to make us give up on the issue of getting back the daughter of Kaunda-my cousin.We all thought we could easily get the child because we had paid part payment of the agreed sum of their customary charges.With our pockets full with the remainder,to us it was just "here you are with this" and let our offspring back as for the family issue thus husband and wife to be sorted out latter.Little did we know that that first lump sum was for "aphungu' only and that 'makolo' had to be compensated(sorry for the term used).Another destination had to be arranged so that we could not just go empty handed and it was here that we experienced the real sena tradition.Soon after taking our seats,a lady,i would call her agogo rushed inside her house and brought that big 'kapu ya chitsulo'.When i say big steel cup i mean it where under normal cicumstances and in many of our traditions you would be anticipating 'thobwa lozizira' but fortunate enough ,it was madzi a pa chitsime.Iwas wondering coz nobody of us had asked for it.So whilst the owners of the village were busy with the sitting arrangement like bringing more chairs and mphasa to make "bwalo likule bwalo. likule,tchalosi"i asked my aunt in low tone that mwaitanitsa madzi akumwa?I did not know that there was a young boy(probably six years of age) from the same vicinity behind me and he answered strongly on top of his voice saying TIMATELO.And agogo came to clarify that it is tradition.It was the same boy who reminded agogo the name of the church she goes to after agogo had fotgotten the name thogh she is a frequent goer and having showered praises to the Lord in the same for the past five years ,all she could remember was that she used to be catholic before.Agogo could be in her late fifties.